Whoa, you just gave my curiosity the old one-two knockout:

1. I've been considering doing a deck chop on my old Squeedunk Cormorant 16. Might be easier to build new, but a deck chop accomplishes too many neato things to ignore, not the least of which I won't have to figure out what to do with the old Cormy. I mean, I hate to throw a great old boat away, and might really enjoy owning a 20-year-old homemade kayak some day (wonder who wins the oldest home built kayak contest right now??). Anyway, looks like your reasoning for chopping vs. new-build and my reasoning for same are in pretty decent alignment.

2. I've been thinking about a Black Pearl for a quite a while, and begin to believe this winter may be time to go for it (unless I decide to chop the Cormy instead). I'm especially curious as to its rough water handling.

Sean, wonder if you could shoot me an email at ngc704 at aol.com ?